An external mirror device, which is usually arranged at the side of a vehicle and is referred to as a side mirror, includes a housing that is open toward the rear side of the vehicle, and a mirror accommodated in the opening of the housing. Some external mirror devices that include a camera at their housing for acquiring information from the outside of the vehicle have been known. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-6926 discloses, as a conventional technique, a technique pertaining to an external mirror apparatus.
According to the external mirror device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-6926, a housing includes at the rear lower portion thereof a camera and a protruding portion, which protrudes downward and is arranged at a portion of the housing more frontward and above than where the camera is. In rainy weather, rain water adhered to the housing would travel along the surface of the housing toward the rear and downward where the camera is arranged. The traveling water would, at the protruding portion, drop due to traveling wind. By this, adhesion of water to the camera is suppressed.
Incidentally, depending on the type of information desired to be acquired, the camera is preferably arranged at a portion of the housing other than the lower portion, for example, at rear portion of the housing. Even in such case, it is desirable that adhesion of water to the camera is suppressed.